Over the last eleven years, rapid advances in the neurosciences have seen the development of new discoveries and concepts in cell to cell information transfer, cell recognition and intracellular communication. Simultaneous with these advances, an explosion of data on cellular and molecular mechanisms associated with seizures emerged. Many theories on mechanisms underlying the epilepsies have since been proposed, but these have lacked cogency with respect to differentiating seizure generation and kindling from the effects of seizures, their spread and arrest. Moreover, these theories have failed to show their relevance to mechanisms of epilepsy in man and how the regulation of gene expression in the nervous system is transmitted and translated into the clinical epilepsies. This proposal requests support for a two-stage conference: a closed workshop designed as an intensive study program in July 1982 will precede an open international symposium in Jan. 1983. These conferences will pinpoint the most promising direction in the search for mechanisms of epilepsy in animals and man. New data and ideas discussed should lead to a more dynamic concept of brain function during the epileptic process and stimulate a new intellectual ferment in understanding basic and genetic mechanisms of epilepsy in man.